Rob: Thanks for the quick responce, now if Austria is looking for cheap planes, there are a few fairly new MB-339CB’s sitting doing nothing in a little place I know (gee wonder where that is), they have not even used half their in service life yet but due to the short sightness of the unnamed government, they are sitting there. It’s odd, withdrawal of the MB-339’s is costing them more today than if they had of kept the planes in service, does this make any sence to keep them sitting around then?
So, how are we going to respond when France’s CdG will undergo maintenance? Or Spain’s Principe d’Asturias? Or – untill recently – Italy’s Guiseppe Garibaldi?
Wan: Forshame on you mate, you should know what is going on just as well as I do! See list:
Italy has GG and will soon have Cavour, one in and one out
Spain: Has PdA and will soon have Juan Carlos, again one in and one out
France: Has CdG and will get the PA2 sometime soon, see a pattern here mate?
Add to this, the recent true test of “International Carrier” with the Deployment of the Ark with Spanish and Italian planes and I really don’t see a prob here (except for the French who don’t operate harriers- guess they can rely on the American’s- hahahaha, yeah right).
Uk has 2 aircraft carriers in service, but the RN has no more aircraft
European: That’s not entirely true mate, RN sqdn’s have just been coming online with GR-9’s and these are part of the JHF.
The Trenton can operate harriers cant it?
rayrubik: Sadly mate the former USS Trenton can not operate Harriers as her deck strength was not enough totake a harrier. Sure it can take the weight of a Harrier, but it’s the heat of the jet nozzels that stop this idea.
Jonesy: Here you go mate, two pics of Harriers on Fearless, the first is a T-2 taking off from her during trials to test such an idea, she was docked RN College Greenwichin this pic (another one floating around has her alongside at Portsmouth but I can’t find that one atm). The second pic is the one you described, an FRS-1 making an emergency fuel stop.
Now having my two cents worth about the original issue:
Indian has for many years, haggled over the right price for what it wants, in the end she gets the price but sadly the world has moved on and thus the price that they want to pay initially is for- what the world sees at time of purchase- old technology.
Indai has billions to spend on its military and we all are amazed at the deals she enters into, but then comes the years of haggling and this is where they loose all credibility. Everyone keeps talking about the sleeping dragon that is India, but sadly I think the dragon is just about dead! It needs a 300Khz jolt to bring it back to life and one loud message sounding right throughtout the governments- “CLEAR”!
I don’t dispise the Indians, heck many of my friends are Indian, and they too can see my points. The Government needs to set out a clear pollicy on what it wants, how it will go about buying them and look realistically on it’s prices (The Qatari Mirage deal comes clearly to mind here).All this price negotiation is harming not only their staff, but as they are now aware, their ability to defend themselves! Given the critical state of affairs in Delhi atm, a militant Pakistani with a screw driver could walk in and take over India, how then can they meet the challenges of China who is basically, ready to go?
The whole Gorshkov deal was one huge farce and the Russians are the ones laughing because they are the ones who are squeezing money out of the Indians. I would have canned the deal after the first two failures to set a price, I would not have bought the Migs (as it stands they will be the only country operating that particular model- too large a risk factor).
Instead I would have kicked the Local carrier into top gear (after all they want three of these, as it stands, with the delays, they’ll be lucky to get one), Kicked HAL in the patootie and told them to hurry up with the LCA(N) and fired my government for the imcompetant fools that they have become, that includes the top brass who kept changing their minds on what they wanted.
infografica: Mate thanks for the link, it issuperb for product info, yes I have seen the rather large cockpit display of the F-35, it was the key focus point at Avalon last year with company personel taking pride in it when showing it off to all the various air force personel from all the different countries. Chinese took a huge long look at it and came back almost every day during the trade show days, sometimes up to five times in the day (probably after changing memory cards in their micro cameras :diablo: ). What I found interesting on that site was the difference between the F-16 displays and the Hornet Displays. Why are the Vipers displays smaller than those of the F/A-18, the cockpits are the same size?
Vymp: Mate the old pics I have seen of the Fullback only show three MFD’s, but I have seen pics of a five set MFD cockpit on a Russian website, tried looking for it just then but came up with nothing.
Here is the one I have seen previosly:
During that search I did however come across many other interesting pics which I am happy to share:
The HAL Teejas (LCA)
The SU-35
The Mig 35 (the rear cockpit is clear in this pic, but IIRC the front cockpit still retains some analogue indicators- though I could be wrong, the back one has two clearly seen)
Here I found two interesting pics of the Mig 31 rear cocpit, the first is the Mig 31BM
Compare this to the next pic of the Mig 31M2
Notice how the M2 has more computer technology installed? I know that rear cocpits aren’t the issue here but it is interesting to see thiese pics don’t you think?
Anyway getting back to the issue at hand, here is the front cockpit of the TUDM SU-30MKM
Stepping back a bit, here is an interesting pic of a MB-339CD cockpit, this is interesting.
Ending the cockpit tours here, how could we leave out what might have been the best and easiest cockpit for pilots to enjoy working in- the EADS MAKO
Otaku: Yes I did meet him mate, I posted pics here last year of my encounter with him, it was on my 35th b/day and he was wishing me many happy returns, it was a humbling experience meeting ones hero. I would loved to have talk to him about many things but he was wound up on his 1947 adventure (breaking the sound barrier for which he was there to relay his experience- personally I would have prefered to hear about his many test and evaluatiins of classic planes such as the F-4, the F-104 and all the other classics that he got to fly during his time as head to the USAF Test Pilots school. As for the halo, that’s garbage mate, he’s as devious as the next service man and just as quick to get away with it 😉 Interestingly enough, his daughter was there and she also wished me a happy birthday, sad to say that people forget about her accomplishments (I didn’t and was surprised to hear her speaking to me, she is such a nice person and a very interesting one as well), I would loved to have talked with her more about her Voyager flight but her father was being hustled away and she had to follow 🙁
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